Page 30 - Flathead Beacon // 10.26.16

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK
TWO FOR THOUGHT SAME TOPIC, DIFFERENT VIEWS NATIONALISM V. GLOBALISM
MYERS REECE
OLD JIM
SEVERAL MONTHS AFTER MY WEDDING IN 2013, a package arrived on my doorstep from Jim Harri- son, the celebrated author of 39 books, including Legends of the Fall. The belated gift was a signed copy of his poetry collection, Songs of Unreason, inscribed with a note: “Dear Myers and Kate — Hope you’re still married. Love, Old Jim.”
Anyone who knew Jim would recognize the dry humor. But what struck me was the self-characterization. Indeed, he was getting old, and the book’s poems dwelled heavily on death. Health fading, he was staring down the beast with his one good eye. Then the light in that eye ickered out, and old Jim passed away earlier this year on March 26. American literature lost one of its nest living practitioners.
I was born and raised in Livingston, a literary and artistic enclave in south-central Montana. My dad is an artist, and I grew up surrounded by painters, sculptors, novelists, journalists, actors, and other questionably employed creative types. Family friends included the likes of Tim Cahill, David Quammen, William Hjorts- berg, and Walter Kirn. I recall a party at my childhood home where Peter Fonda got onstage with the band and quickly, by unanimous decision, had his cowbell privi- leges revoked.
Thrust into this unsavory habitat, I acquired writing as a birth a iction, and as a boy dead-set on pursuing the craft, no two members of that extended tribe loomed larger than Thomas McGuane and Jim Harrison, long- time friends and towering literary gures. But Jim, with his own shelf of books and an ever-growing belly, cast the biggest shadow.
In certain literary circles and university creative writ- ing departments, Jim is one of the most respected writ- ers of the last half-century. Yet, he remains relatively unknown to broader audiences, in no small part because he wrote about rural America, a foreign land hidden from critics behind a wall of New York City skyscrapers.
Last weekend, a wake was held for Jim in Livingston, where his two daughters and their families live. His old- est daughter is one of my mother’s dearest friends. My hometown had already hosted his memorial service in May, which was widely attended, but the wake was an opportunity for his closest literary and foodie friends from across the country to gather in celebration of his life.
The night before the event, my mother helped prepare a private dinner for a group of Jim’s friends, including Mario Batali, the famed chef. Three days earlier, Batali had been in the White House as the hand-selected chef to cook the Obama Administration’s nal state dinner. Needless to say, my mom paid particular attention to her spring rolls that evening. Batali loved them.
Jim was never a hands-on mentor to me. Other writ- ers ful lled that role. Rather, his sheer presence in my life helped take the mythology out of writing, but none of the magic. Here was this blind-in-one-eye, bulbous man, who once compared himself to a massive beetle, at my dinner table shoving food into his mouth with greasy n- gers. Great literature felt close enough to touch, and you didn’t even have to wash your hands rst.
I nished the manuscript for my rst novel three months after he died. It had been a private dream for him to read it, because he’s a reason it exists, and it pains me that it never happened. I envisioned it as a thank you, a tribute, delivered through the human transaction he understood best: a story.
Instead, I’m left with these meager postmortem words. Jim, this is my package on your doorstep. I’m sorry it came so late.
BY TIM BALDWIN
Political pundits have characterized Trump v. Clin-
ton as Nationalism v. Globalism more than anything else. In this light, that Trump has so much support is better understood but not more comforting.
Many conservative Americans think Trump is their only and nal way to sever America’s global ties. Trump promises to secure the border with a “great wall;” pro- hibit foreign Muslims from entering; bring jobs “home;” destroy ISIS; and impose tari s on imports. Trump denigrates Mexicans, undermines women, ips the metaphorical middle nger to the globalist establish- ment, de es “political correctness” and promises to reinstate “law and order” to the homeland.
As such, Trump’s supporters ignore his danger- ous qualities with hopes he will restore their beloved homogenous, red-blooded, black-and-white, home- of-the-brave America; or as Trump phrases it, “Make America Great Again.” This atmosphere is not unlike how other Nationalist leaders of yesteryear rose to and stayed in power who then persecuted the undesired groups of people.
The Founders wisely created a di used system to guard against the dangers of popular will putting into o ce potential tyrants. Our system serves this purpose well, but it is not absolute. If Trump loses, his follow- ers’ feelings will continue but their cause may be long- thwarted. If he wins and acts as he promised, America will look very di erent. But as Trump says to garner votes, how can it get any worse? But it could, actually.
BY JOE CARBONARI
If someone powerful enough wishes to reach out
and “touch” you from across the world, they likely can. From “Whoops, what happened to my Net ix?” to “Hey, the power just went out!” we have become vul- nerable. It is truly a global world in which we live. We do so, however, within our own set of morals, customs and beliefs. We’d like to keep it that way.
In many senses we are status quo conservative. We welcome diversity, but wish to meet its challenges, to make our changes, gradually, incrementally. Massive movement of immigrants and refugees is not desired. We perceive it as threatening our physical safety and our economic well-being. We resist.
When coupled with economic stagnation, as with much of our working class, our frustrations and dis- pleasures are multiplied. Widening inequality exacer- bates the situation. Many resent those who are enjoy- ing the bene ts that they are not and realize that their own competitive abilities are diminished, and that their prospects for self-improvement are not good. Something must change.
Many Trump and Sanders supporters feel this need. Neither’s approach is acceptable, but change we must have, though it must be incremental. We must inte- grate change, both of people and policies, with sen- sitivity to our basic beliefs of fairness, tolerance, and inclusion, and we must take care of ourselves rst.
It’s a matter of balance. Walk quietly; carry a big stick ... with a ready, helping hand.
GUEST COLUMN MIKE GARRITY
AMERICA IS A NATION OF LAWS: COLLABORATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS
the collaborative backed, calls for another 8,845 acres of commercial logging, of which 3,458 acres will be new clearcuts in federally-designated lynx critical habitat. Bear in mind that the Forest Service’s own scientists say clearcuts harm, not help, lynx. Meanwhile, con- sider that by the Forest Service’s own estimate the sale will cost taxpayers $2,589,535 to subsidize the further degradation of already degraded habitat.
The problem with both the Bundys’ and Vincents’ scheme is that America is a nation of laws. The Bun- dys were arrested by the FBI but there is no federal agency policing the Forest Service. Instead when Con- gress wrote natural resource laws they include a citi- zen enforcement provision because our Constitution has the First Amendment, which gives all Americans the right to challenge the federal government.
This is what the Alliance for the Wild Rockies did when we challenged the Forest Service’s decision on East Reservoir. When the local district court decided that it was alright for the Forest Service to violate the Endangered Species Act, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stepped in. Judges appointed by both a Repub- lican president and a Democratic president halted the clearcutting because the Forest Service was clearly violating the law. In the end both Vincent and the Bun- dys are nding out that just because a group of people get together and decide that they don’t want to follow the law, that’s not the way it works in America. We are a nation of laws and nobody is above the law. Not the Bundys, not the Forest Service, not timber corpora- tions, not pseudo conservation groups and not Vin- cent’s collaborative.
T
RISTAN SCOTT’S ARTICLE IN THE OCT. 19 Flathead Beacon (“Family Trees”) about how
wonderful Bruce Vincent’s collaboration is, complained that the Alliance for the Wild Rockies is not part of the collaborative. But why would the Alliance, which is an organization that advocates for healthy forests and recovery of endangered species, want to conspire to help local people in the Kootenai National Forest gure out how to break federal laws?
Vincent’s collaborative group came up with a less- than-amazing plan where federal taxpayers across the nation would pay millions of dollars to subsidize clear- cutting of lynx, grizzly bear and bull trout habitat on the national forests owned by all Americans, not just a handful in the Kootenai. And as the Court ruling proved, their plan ignored the legal requirements of the Endangered Species Act. Didn’t the Bundys come up with a similar plan to dictate policies on public lands for their own local pro ts? Of course Compton’s group was more sophisticated than the Bundys and instead of showing up with guns to take over a wild- life refuge, they conspired with the U.S. Forest Service, the timber industry, and groups like the Montana Wil- derness Association to break federal laws.
The bottom line – and the core of the problem – is that Vincent’s collaborative agreed to massively log one of the most heavily-logged forests in Montana. The grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem are going extinct because of past logging and road-building that produced 22,000 acres of existing clearcuts in the East Reservoir area on the east side of Lake Koocanusa.
Despite this, the East Reservoir timber sale, which
Mike Garrity is the executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.
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OCTOBER 26, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM